Three Takeaways From Blues' 3-1 Loss Against Lightning

Those that may not have seen the game and took a peek at the stat sheet without seeing the score may have thought the St. Louis Blues won a hockey game on Thursday.

It was similar like many of their losses this season in which they created good scoring chances, only to not be able to finish.

The Blues outshot the red-hot Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday but were their own victims yet again in a 3-1 loss at Amalie Arena.

Pavel Buchnevich scored the lone goal, but Jordan Binnington was pulled after allowing three goals -- for the fifth time in his past six starts -- on just 11 shots early in the second period and replaced by Joel Hofer.

The Blues (15-16-3) fell a game under .500 with their third loss in four games, and in each scoring just one goal. It's the ninth time this season they've scored one goal in a game.

Let's take a look at the game's Three Takeaways:

* Getting no secondary scoring -- Right how for the Blues, if the name doesn't say Kyrou, Buchnevich or Thomas, they're not scoring.

Jordan Kyrou (four goals), Buchnevich (two) and Robert Thomas (one) have accounted for each of the past seven Blues goals going back four-plus games.

Buchnevich scored a really nice goal off some strong work by the Mathieu Joseph, Zack Bolduc and Alexandre Texier line that created strong sustained offense:

But it was another example of the Blues getting no secondary scoring.

The well has dried up for Dylan Holloway, who capped a seven-game point streak with an overtime game-winning goal Dec. 10 against the Vancouver Canucks but since then, has no points and is a minus-6 in five games; Jake Neighbours has two goals the past nine games; Brayden Schenn has one goal in 11 games and none the past four, and he has one 5-on-5 goal all season; Bolduc has two goals the past nine games since his first multi-goal game in the NHL in coach Jim Montgomery's debut Nov. 25 against the New York Rangers; Brandon Saad has no goals his past 16 games and has scored in just two of 30 games; Joseph hasn't scored in his past 16 games and has just one assist in that stretch; Oskar Sundqvist, who was a healthy scratch Thursday, has no goals in 14 games; Alexandre Texier has one goal in 16 games this season and none the past 13; Alexey Toropchenko has one goal in 32 games this season but none in his past 21; Nathan Walker has no goals (or points) the past 12 games, and Radek Faksa, who has missed the past five games with a lower-body injury, has just two goals in 29 games, none in his past 11 games.

Even the defensemen aren't contributing; they're 25th in the league with just 11 goals, and Colton Parayko has five of them. And they're 20th in the league for defenseman points with 56.

If the Blues don't start getting some help from the bottom of the lineup or from their d-men on offense, it will be a long year.

* Tucker, Perunovich struggled -- Tyler Tucker made his season debut when he was called up from Springfield of the American Hockey League on Thursday and played when Philip Broberg was out with illness.

It did not go well.

On Tampa's first goal scored by Anthony Cirelli, Tucker and Scott Perunovich didn't communicate the zone entry, and both d-men were on the same side of the ice when Cirelli snuck in behind Buchnevich and was in alone on Binnington:

Each was on the ice when Gage Goncalves scored his first NHL goal in the second, and it was Perunovich with a fly-by soft screen that ultimately chased Binnington that made it 3-1 just 1:18 after Buchnevich scored:

Each d-man was a minus-2, and Perunovich played just 12:31 and Tucker played even less (8:27).

* Power play is generating nothing -- Once again, the Blues power play had a chance to make a difference in a game, either give them a lead, or in this case, tie the game, and they generated little to nothing.

They're 0-for-8 the past five games, including 0-for-2 Thursday with three shots. Down 1-0 in the first period, Jake Guentzel was in the box for hooking and it failed once again to fall to 27h in the league (16.0 percent).

Hear from Montgomery, Thomas and Schenn postgame: